I had struggled to find a consistent groove and routine all year, thanks to personal sickness, 2 family emergencies in the spring, and support staff difficulties.

By the time students took this survey on June 1st, they had not watched a flipped video or taken a regular assessment in 3 weeks (because of standardized testing and a class trip in May). These are really gut-reaction responses.

All things considered, I'm not going to beat myself up about the lower-than-usual 64% "approval rating". I was on survival mode for much of the school year, and when you're just trying to get through then compromises must be made. Actually, I'm kind of surprised that the rating wasn't lower! These students did not get my best work this year ... more like a B- compared to last year's B+/A- achievement. I must take full responsibility, although considering the circumstances I'm not sure I could have done much better. This is why the wonderful school years feel so good: they don't happen every time! Sometimes you don't quite click with the students, or they with you. Sometimes the outside world reigns supreme, and your schoolwork takes a hit. (Remember: That happens occasionally for students, too!)

This meme holds true for 1 more month, until I turn 40 this summer! ^^^^

Still, there are a few lessons I can gain & share from this school year experience:

1) Get all the September lessons, activities, etc. completely preparedbefore the first day. I did too much "big-picture" planning and thinking in August, and not enough logistical preparation. Some was election/politics-related, so I won't have that in 2017. But I absolutely must get the first few weeks under control, so I can respond more effectively to surprises (like new students, schedule changes, etc.). That might mean starting the year a little boring, which is OK because you can always go up from there.

2) I will report problems more loudly and more swiftly to administration, especially about teaching-assistant issues. Kids refused to work with her; they avoided opportunities to re-watch and re-take, just to stay away from that TA. Of course that negatively impacted their learning, and also their attitude toward my class. I wasted time and effort trying to help make that situation work, and suddenly it was "too late" to terminate that individual. Really it was the students who suffered, and I learned a tough lesson about the importance to advocate for them.

3) You must be honest and direct with students about your grading system, especially the unusual parts. I dug deeper into students' complaints about my quizzes, particularly why missing 1 question would require a re-take. I found that they did not understand my desire for mastery -- I had never told them why!! Or if I did, they couldn't remember. When I explained these are the basic facts they "Need2Know" for deeper discussions or projects or whatever, then they get it! Perhaps I could have avoided some strife and grumbling with just a 10-minute conversation in September....

So, what have we learned? Flipped instruction is durable, flexible, and effective enough to survive whatever 2016-2017 could throw at it. Now it's summer so...

A couple weeks ago, all my students took a GoogleForm survey during class. Many questions were similar to those I used the previous two years, so I can start comparing cohorts and looking for trends. Perhaps the most important question is the one you see below.

In 3 years of asking this question, I've still never had a student choose "MUCH WORSE". Yay! However, I can't help noticing that the "Really Great"+"Mainly Better" (basically my approval rating) is 64.5%, whereas last year I got 74%. That's a significant difference and deserves further reflection.

Before I get there, let's look at some other pieces of feedback. Everyone answered this question, even if they rated my flipped-learning system as "Really Great". It was an open-response item, so I had to categorize the responses myself to build the graph below.

​ The biggest complaint about my flipped classroom was the expectation to remember facts and ideas from the video lessons. [See more about my accountability and assessment system in these earlier blog posts.] One girl wrote about long-term memory: "I would just memorize facts for one day and then forget it by the next day, the information didn't stick into my head." But here's the thing: she absolutely rocked it on the quizzes, in connective class discussions, and all kinds of summative assessments. That comment sells her short. More related comments from the survey:

"The quizzes sometimes needed very specific details on a certain topic." -- Yes.

"The quiz taking part because sometimes you would forget something and fail because of it." -- Well, yeah that's how assessment works...but you always had a chance to retake those quizzes for mastery!

"I felt like some of it was just memorization and less learning." -- Hmmmm, I wish he said more about that. Memorization is a form of learning, but what else did he have in mind?

​To some degree, this is just the nature of a history class:There are some terms, concepts, events, etc. that one must know (lower-order learning) before proceeding to analyze, apply, synthesize, and other high-order skills. However, there may be more effective ways to get the job done....

The purple and green sections show the practical limits of digital instruction:

"we could not ask immediate questions in person so that I could ask multiple questions while they were in my head"

"Not being able to ask question until the next time we had class or during [intervention period]"

"I did not like how sometimes the videos would be very long"

"It relied too heavily on computers and technology"

"i don't really like using the computer to get homework done." <-- This represents the 8% portion of 21st-century teenagers that don't feel like digital natives. We can't assume they all live online, or that every child enjoys screen time!​

True enough, Abe. True enough....

​​ Let's end this post with some positive feedback. Again, I categorized the students' open-response submissions to search for trends.

Even the most critical students had something good to say about flipped learning, even something is banal as "It was fairly easy and it was not hard all you had to do was watch and listen" or another personal favorite: "you prepared us good for the test" Other answers sound like they were written by a self-serving ed-tech PR executive, but I swear these are real!!

​"What I liked the best was that the videos helped break down what the answer was and why it was that answer."

"once you got into a routine, it made the process fast and simple."

"It saved class time for more things related to the current topic."

"It was nice not having loads of papers to carry around"

"I like how it provides a chance for students with different learning styles to learn at their own pace."

In the last few days of school in June 2016, I surveyed my students with a GoogleForm. Their responses were NOT anonymous. (We had an ugly "anonymity" episode at school earlier in the year, and frankly I want the ability to align students' responses with their performance in my class.) I had informally surveyed and queried students throughout the year, so very few responses were really shocking. ​

NOTE: For some reason I edited the question halfway through the students' responses so there are two wedges for "BETTER"...basically the green and light-blue sections are identical (combined 47.1%)

​ As you probably know, most flipping teachers get to know their students a lot better than traditional colleagues! The year-end survey mostly validated my presumptions, concerns, and observations, as did the similar survey that I collected and blogged about in 2015.

91.9% is a pretty flipping good homework rate, right??

For the open-response questions, I will start by showing some of the positive comments that answered the survey question "What did you like the best about the video/quiz homework system?" because if you don't have enough time to read this entire blog post then you will think my class is totally terrific! Haha

These are generally the kind of compliments I expected to see. The last one is probably my favorite. Nobody wants a "grumpy tired day!"

However, it's the critical feedback that helps the most. I also asked "What did you like the LEAST about the video/quiz homework system?" A handful of responders said something like "there was nothing I didn't like." I hope they were being honest. The actual criticism seemed to fall in several categories, with varying levels of importance. ​ Some students wanted more words on the screen:

I struggle with that aspect for every video I produce. Adding text takes extra time and effort in the production process. Will students just pause and copy words of the screen for their notes? (I have proof that some kids do.) If so, should I care? Youtube has a built-in speech-to-text caption feature, but it's horrible; Vimeo doesn't even try. I try to speak clearly and record high-quality audio. Is this really a big deal? ​ Other students addressed the issue of who makes the video:

Uh-oh, sorry John Green! I even showed students how to activate the closed-captioning AND how to slow down the playback speed to 0.5, so they can understand your super-caffeinated delivery. The bigger problem seems to be vocabulary. In an otherwise terrific video about the antebellum South, you said that poor white farmers supported slavery "for aspirational reasons." Most 8th graders do not know what that means, and the dictionary isn't helpful. This is a valid point, I think. At a FlipCon16 panel this month, a former student was asked about seeing the teacher's face on videos: "It depends on the teacher." Hah! Occasionally the professionals do a much better job than we possibly could manage, but usually it's our job to produce the content.

I received three comments about proper video length:

The third comment seems to address an uncommon problem. She was a strong student with some background knowledge (and an older sister, so maybe she had already seen a few of my videos!) The other point about video length seems fair. I got several positive comments for the other survey question about video length, but there were at least 2 unhappy customers. The "chop a big video in half" suggestion reminds me of some FlipCon16 student panel members' ideas. The students really do notice!

A few students complained about the effort my class required.

Yes, that's right buddy: School happens every week after the summer vacation ends! The other three comments also don't bother me, and they will not inspire any changes. That is exactly how mastery learning is supposed to work! I understand the contrast between scanning a textbook page vs. learning from a video lesson, and I intend to address that linear/non-linear distinction in another blog post. Meanwhile, moving on....

These two students gave me a crucial lesson about changing formats:

Yup, fair enough. I blogged a bit last year about tweaking and shifting my assessment strategies -- trying to find the perfect system. Beware of big mid-year changes! It might be better to just ride out the next few months and wait until next year. Few of my big-time changes were successful in 2015-16....

Finally, a few critics had cogent arguments about their ability to follow-up on the video lessons.

These address an important difference between in-class lectures & video presentations: I can't get my questions answered right away. Fortunately, there are technological solutions. The 2nd commenter mentioned the power of our LMS, but also said he doesn't really like using that. OK, but he took the time to find me at school instead. That's solid problem solving! The 3rd student who "would forget to ask [me]" basically admitted her responsibility. Remember: even in the classroom, some students' questions will be missed because of their personal shyness, the Hermione Granger know-it-alls that dominate the conversation, the end-of-period bell, etc. Still it's an issue worth remembering and anticipating for new flippers. It's also one of the reasons why I have always given 2 or 3 nights for every video HW assignment.

Whew! That was a really long post. Thanks for making it all the way through! Do my students' opinions help inform your practice? Did their voices sound familiar? Is there another question that you wish I had asked? Comments and connections are always welcome!

Who is this flipping guy?!

Andrew Swan is in year 18 of teaching middle school (currently 8th-grade US History in a Boston suburb). Previously he has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English, ancient history, & geography in Maine and in Massachusetts. This is Andrew's 5th year of flipping all direct instruction so we have more class time for simulations, deep discussions, analyzing primary sources ... and also to promote mastery for students at all levels. His 7th-grade daughter, 9th-grade son, and wonderful wife all indulge Andrew's blogging, tweeting, & other behaviors. These include co-moderating the #sschat Twitter sessions and Facebook page. ​Andrew does not always refer to himself in the third-person. Twitter: @flipping_A_tchrInstagram: aswan802